A third mysterious monolith has appeared, this time in the Bay Area of Los Angeles.
The first of the three monoliths was discovered by government workers in the Utah desert and made news headlines around the world for its eerie resemblance to the monolith that appears in Stanley Kubrick's classic film '2001: A Space Odyssey'. The second monolith was discovered only days ago on the slopes of the Batca Doamnei hill in Romania, just outside the city of Piatra Neamţ.
In all three cases, there is no indication as to who was behind the placing of the structures, but the Utah monolith and the Romanian monolith have now both been removed. The Utah monument, whose location was hidden by state officials to avoid sightseers travelling to the hazardous terrain, was revealed to have been removed by a group who then published a video of their actions on TikTok. Those responsible for the Romanian monolith have not been identified.
The group that removed the Utah monolith is made up of environmentalist athletes who believed the monolith, despite the attempt to hide its location, was indeed attracting huge numbers of tourists. This, in turn, was beginning to pose a risk to the local environment.
Sylvan Christensen, who was part of the removal group, said in a post:
"This land wasn't physically prepared for the population shift (especially during a pandemic). People arrived by car, by bus, by van, helicopter, planes, trains, motorcycles and E-bikes and there isn't even a parking lot. There aren't bathrooms— and yes, pooping in the desert is a misdemeanor. There was a lot of that."
He added:
"We removed the Utah Monolith because there are clear precedents for how we share and standardize the use of our public lands, natural wildlife, native plants, freshwater sources, and human impacts upon them. Things like this don't help."
A post shared by Sylvan Christensen (@sylvanslacks)
It is said that the third monolith is made of aluminium and very shiny, but unlike its Utah counterpart, it does not appear solidly lodged in the ground and could easily be pushed over, therefore posing a health and safety risk. For this reason, it too is likely to be removed soon.
Many are speculating as to whether the incidents are related and whether an international group of avant-garde modern artists is behind the 'guerilla-art', or whether the first monolith is simply being copied by unconnected imitators. The mystery continues.
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